At that point, we hoped Pearl Jam would still be able to go to Europe in June. Every day since, things have gotten worse. I would say there are 50-plus people on the road. Crews for the most part work tour to tour, and they’re not employees — and sorry, everybody’s out of work.
I started SoundGirls in 2013. Right now, we’re trying to figure out how we can help our unemployed members. The only thing close to this was 9/11. People lost work then, but this is on another scale. With 9/11, you still had 25 percent of your work. There are not going to be huge stadium shows any time soon; I don’t know how we’re going to tour. How do you route a tour around a city that’s on lockdown? So, it’s going to change. And, at this point, I don’t think anybody knows realistically how it’s going to change.
Most people who work live events have accepted the fact that they’re not going to work this year. Several members of SoundGirls have had a difficult time filing for unemployment, mainly because they can’t get into the system no matter what state they live in. Some of them are diversified in other areas [of work], but most of their services revolve around providing rentals for live shows. We’re going to lose a lot of talented people that have dedicated their lives to doing this.
Google, via YouTube, has let users supply it with free music, thus supplying it with free content, for more than a decade...because people assumed the record companies were the pimps the artists ‘barely needed’ anyway. 😐
You are just now writing about this?
I was supposed to see Pearl Jam and hear her work!
All musicians and support staff, pop, rock, broadway, orchestral are really hard hit in this situation.
The insanity of humanity!